Leeds owner defends Myanmar tour: 'This is about people not governments'

While fans expressed concern over aligning the club with Myanmar, the Leeds managing director, Angus Kinnear, defended the decision and said the squad "are very excited for the chance to represent the club in Asia".

The Leeds United tour is being planned in partnership with AYA Bank, a Myanmar financial institution.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advise against all non-essential travel to four separate areas of Myanmar, formerly Burma.

Myanmar has a troubled history, with claims made of human rights violations and genocide amid political unrest and violence in the country.

'Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled crimes against humanity in Rakhine State to neighbouring Bangladesh; those who remain continue to live under a system amounting to apartheid. "Far too often sporting events have been used as a cheap PR tool to 'sportswash" the stain of a country's human rights record'.

The owner of Leeds United says the club will press ahead with a tour of Burma but admits that he knew the visit would be controversial.

However Kyi has since drawn widespread criticism from around the world for her persecution or as United Nations assistant secretary-general for human rights, Andrew Gilmour calls it, "ethnic cleansing", of Rohingya people.

The second-tier side will also conduct football clinics with Myanmar Football Federation academies in Yangon and Mandalay and visit cultural sites including Shwedagon Pagoda and the Maha Myat Muni Pagoda, the Yorkshire club said in a statement.

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